1. Field
The present invention relates generally to an amusement device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a ball and track game. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a ball and track game comprising an uninterrupted, closed-end track along which a ball is caused to continuously move by means of the manipulative actions of the game player.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art is replete with hand operated amusement devices comprising a track adapted to receive and have moved there along a ball or other spherical-shaped object. Some of these devices comprise a game surface provided with an opened-end, i.e., non-continuous, track or raceway in which a ball is adapted to be received and moved along therein by means of the manipulative hand actions of the game player. The track in such games may follow a flat, or inclining or declining, path which usually is of a generally spiraling configuration. U.S. Pat. No. 3,702,191, for example, shows a ball and track game in which the track follows either an inclining or declining path, at the game player's option, of a spiraling, circular configuration, while U.S. Pat. No. 513,105 shows a game in which the track follows a declining path of spiraling, elliptical configuration. It is not uncommon, moreover, in such ball and track games of this type for the opened, end track to be made more tortuous by the inclusion of obstacles, as is done in U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,750 in which a plurality of baffles, bumps and openings are placed in the path of a flat track of spiraling, circular configuration. Whatever form the track may take in these various ball and track games, however, the object of each game is the uninterrupted movement of a ball from a first point on an opened-end track to a second point thereon by varying the position of the track-bearing surface through the hand manipulations of the game player.
There are also hand operated ball and track games in the prior art in which the path to be followed by the ball is closed-end, i.e., continuous, and usually contained within a generally dish-shaped member having a convex outer surface and a concave inner surface. U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,658, for example, shows a game in which a plurality of disks, rather than a ball, are caused to follow closed, unidentified paths about the concave surface of a bowl-shaped member as a result of the gyratory motion imparted thereto by the hand manipulations of the game player. While sustained, uninterrupted movement of the several disks about closed-end paths is the objective of the game, the paths followed by the disks are not defined by fixed tracks and, accordingly, may vary widely in their configurations from revolution to revolution.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,675,209 shows another ball and track game in which a closed-end track is contained within a generally dish-shaped member. In the game of this patent, the dish-shaped member is provided with a centrally located core extending from the bottom of its inner concave surface which cooperates with the vertically inclined walls of the surface to form an annulus constituting a closed-end track adapted to receive a ball. The object of this game, however, is not to produce continuous movement of the ball along the closed-end track but, rather, to produce movement of the dish-shaped member itself along a selected path on a support member, such movement being effected by inertial forces imparted to the ball as it moves from point to point along the track, such forces being applied by hand manipulations of the game player.